Monday, January 5, 2015

Bitcoin exchange market coming to Nigeria

Nigeria bitcoin users will be happy to learn that we are pleased to announce the launch of the the Naira market on ICE³X. The Market will officially begin trading on the 12th January 2015, but users are able to sign up and verify their accounts from today.

An exclusive agreement with Nigerian payment processor, VoguePay, now allows clients to trade bitcoin in their native Naira using their existing VoguePay wallets to fund their transactions, which execute on the robust trading platform that ICE³X have been developing over the last 2 years.

Being a full order book exchange, ICE³X affords VoguePays’ clients in Nigeria the opportunity to place buy/sell orders for bitcoin instantly with further integration possibilities already in place to provide full crypto-merchant services to customers.

According to the Nigeria Communications Commission, in June 2013 the country had 48.1 million active internet subscriptions through mobile phone networks, yet this space has been largely ignored by the internet currency advocates.

“As the biggest economy in Africa, with over 40 million people connected to the internet in one way or another, it’s only natural that Nigeria is looking to take part in the opportunities that the internet affords everyone around the world. With our daily lives becoming more global and the world population & migration statistics ever increasing, it makes perfect sense to have a global mechanism, accessible by all, which operates in a self regulated eco-system, as “payment rails” for the masses connected via the web.

We have to be realistic though, the Bitcoin technology has yet to be packaged and applied correctly for it to be a mainstream alternative currency, but as an agnostic payment settlement mechanism within a larger framework it ticks all the boxes and could perhaps have a significant impact on shaping the Nigerian digital economy landscape. It is a market that simply just cannot be ignored any longer” – Gareth Grobler, Founder ICE³.

VoguePay is an online payment processor whose vision is to offer buyers and sellers a secure and easy-to-use means of transacting business online. They combine local and international knowledge and apply this to keep business connected with cutting edge financial technology. Their executive and research teams are based in Canary Wharf, London’s financial district with their development, operations and professional services groups located in Lagos, Africa’s largest market.

Through this unique opportunity VoguePay are pioneering cross border processing capabilities using Bitcoin in Africa and not just Nigeria Bitcoin businesses. The company is dedicated to bringing secure and effective payment processing facilities to Nigeria and is rapidly expanding their product offering to include alternative currencies.

“It’s been an amazing year for VoguePay. As we recently launched our latest platform (V 2.0), thousands of transactions have already experienced our unique service that our platform has to offer; and we are excited to be recognised as the best Nigerian online payment platform. Building relationships with reputable companies such as iceCUBED in South Africa, who are also focused on making e-payment accessible to as many people as possible; we will continue to set the pace of the Nigerian online payment industry. The example we are setting will pave the way for young African entrepreneurs to foster better business relationships, making the online markets more accessible to millions of Africans.” -VoguePay Compliance and Marketing director, Geoffrey Weli Wosu.

The Naira Market on ICE³X is currently live in the production environment and users are currently being verified in anticipation of the official market opening on 12th January 2015. ICE³X have been operating a successful bitcoin exchange in their native currency, Rand, since August 2013 and are also launching the Dollar and Sterling markets on the exchange at the end of January 2015.